Federal election 2016: Like politicians, voters can get it horribly wrong
JOHN Howard once said “the people never get it wrong”. From a smart man it’s an astonishing load of rubbish. Like our pollies, we get it wrong all the time, writes Justin Smith.
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THERE are not many with the savvy and political arithmetic of John Howard. He’s a beacon of success — and not just for the ones with the same party colours, but for all politicians who dream of spending slow afternoons in a chair smiling at victories.
But once he said “the people never get it wrong”. From such a smart man, it’s an astonishing load of rubbish. We get it wrong all the time.
We get it wrong on our own and we get it wrong in masses. We’re always being given the chance to bugger things up and many times we’ve taken it.
Straight after the mess of the election weekend, Premier Daniel Andrews tried the words again.
“The Australian people never get it wrong,” he said, with a little less conviction than the old PM, but still showing it’s a fantasy shared on both sides of politics.
It’s just a tale — much the way Adam and Eve was used by the church to explain the creation of the human race. It’s a good story and sounds believable. It’s just not the truth. But the stories still get told, because the realities are far too complicated for the voters and followers.
And the proof came when we woke up Sunday morning. We certainly weren’t looking at each with the confidence of people who “never get it wrong”. Instead, with stunned squints, we looked at the TV and read the newspapers and wondered with scary confusion, “how the hell did that happen?”.
But we, the people, had a lot of assistance getting it wrong.
Malcolm Turnbull was a huge help. When he became leader, all the Abbott supporters hated him, but he still had the smell of a winner. They like that. And his polling numbers were so good, all he needed to do was get on his sled and slide down the snow of a winter election to victory.
But late one afternoon, shortly after announcing his campaign, the Prime Minister went to take a nap — and his staff forgot to wake him. He pulled the blanket up to his chin and dreamt of reviving the Building & Construction Commission, installing a malleable Senate and CFA volunteers scooping him up in their mighty arms to keep him safe
The great communicator slept through the whole thing. If he had a vision, he wasn’t sharing it.
Bill Shorten helped us get it wrong and he was wide awake. Before the campaign, his polling figures showed that he was practically unlikeable and unelectable and his strong union history was far more an anchor than a sail.
But he started running at dawn and talking all day and it began to work. The people listened. That’s when he dropped one of the worst fibs ever told in a campaign — Turnbull’s plan to privatise Medicare. He had no proof, but he stuck with the George-Seinfeld-Costanza mantra that “it’s not a lie if YOU believe it”. So he told it hard and often.
And the people, who “never get it wrong”, cunningly decided to stop either side from making a strong and real government. Because, even though they had plenty of time to sell themselves, they spent the long campaign sleeping or lying.
Standing in my line of voters on Saturday morning, looking at the Liberal and Labor posters, that’s all they had for us — CFA and Medicare. One a state issue and a made-up pile of crap.
So with the big boys — including the Greens — not having much to say, our eyes were swinging around for the others to help. The ones who didn’t need to make it up, because they believed every word they shouted.
And now we have Hanson’s popular danger, Hinch’s glittered ego and Lambie’s wide-eyed stumbling to remind them of what happens when major parties treat hearts and minds like cuts of offal.
We’ve been looking at our mates in the United States and wondering how they are getting so close to electing a fruitcake like Donald Trump. We need only to look back on the lessons of the weekend. This is how is happens. No one is giving us anything else to chew on, so we might as well eat fruitcake.
In truth, the John Howard theory is just a painkiller for politicians. Saying the people “never get it wrong” is a way of separating them from the outcome.
The belief that the masses link together in some kind of cosmic Vulcan mind-meld every election to connect the promise of democracy to the next generation is bunkum.
With help we’ll get it right and with help we’ll get it wrong.
Justin Smith is a 3AW presenter
Originally published as Federal election 2016: Like politicians, voters can get it horribly wrong
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